Bertille Bak’s Faire le Mur (2023) is showcased in the Abby Kortrijk Museum, Belgium for the F**klore group exhibition, exploring the fluid boundaries between tradition, subversion, and cultural identity. In this video installation, Bak turns her lens to children navigating the constraints of their urban environment, transforming walls—symbols of division, enclosure, and control—into sites of playful defiance. Through carefully orchestrated yet seemingly spontaneous interventions, she captures how everyday acts of resistance can reshape public space. By blending documentary realism with staged narratives, Faire le Mur offers a poignant reflection on resilience, community, and the power of collective imagination.
Presented alongside works by artists examining the evolution of folklore in contemporary society, Faire le Mur highlights Bak’s signature approach—an empathetic, immersive engagement with marginalized communities. The piece echoes the exhibition’s broader themes: the tension between preservation and reinvention, the role of storytelling in shaping identity, and the ways in which traditions can both include and exclude. Through her subtle yet incisive gaze, Bak invites us to reconsider how folklore is not just inherited, but actively rewritten.
